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From Bulgaria to Belgium
  • Dave's Adventures

From Bulgaria to Belgium

After living in Bulgaria's capital Sofia its been time to return back home to Belgium
But not before visiting other balkan countries ofcourse
I am trying to hitchhike as much as possible all the way from Bulgaria to Belgium through the balkans Meer informatie
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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Autostop to Butrint

    15 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    This morning I decided to explore Sarandë a bit but after wandering around in the city for a while I got bored and wanted some adventure and meet some other people

    So I decided to hitchhike to Butrint
    Butrint was an ancient roman city and you can visit the ruins about 20 km south of Sarandë

    So I started my hitchhiking on the road from Sarandë to Butrint

    I immediately experienced how easy hitchhiking in Albania is, the 5th car stopped and gave me a ride to Ksamil and in Ksamil the first car stopped already to drive me to Butrint

    One thing I also noticed the last days is how incredibly friendly albanians are, everyone says hello to each other on the street and sometimes people just randomly start a conversation with you    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Leaving Sarandë

    17 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Right now I am leaving Sarandë for Himare

    I didn't like Sarandë at all, but I went on some pretty nice daytrips and I did like the hostel very much

    I've met some really nice people here and the owner of the hostel was one of the friendliest guys I've ever met

    I'm kinda sad about it because I'll certainly miss the people I've met here but its time for a new adventure 😎    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Vlorë

    19 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    I arrived in Vlorë

    Today I've experienced the albanian hospitality once again!

    I was hitchhiking from Himare to Vlorë and as I was waiting for my first ride an old albanian lady came to me and she offered me some local bulgarian fruit, she was really sweet

    It didn't take long before I've got my first ride, once again it was the first car that passed me, it was a truck

    This truck driver gave me a ride to Palase, which was like 20-30 minutes drive from Himare but because the roads were very steep it took the truck about an hour to get to Palase, the driver also offered me some cookies

    Once in Palase I started to thumb up at passing traffic again, as there wasn't many traffic on the road I started to think that maybe I could start walking already, even though it was still 50 kilometers to Vlorë and it was a mountainous area so the road was very steep

    It didn't take long before a car stopped for me, he drove me all the way to Vlorë and offered me an apple    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Berat

    21 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    I took the bus from Vlorë to Berat

    When I arrived in my hostel in Berat i got greeted by my hosts, it was an elder couple in their 70s and they were really friendly and too cute

    They did not speak much english but the woman tried to explain me everything i needed to know for my stay in the hostel as good as she could
    She also offered me some turkish coffee and albanian rakia

    After this i went to explore the city a bit and when I did return her husband greeted me, he did speak even less english as his wife but one of the first things he asked me was: "Rakia?"

    Ofcourse I do understand that and that's an offer I cannot refuse 😂 So he gave me some raki and coffee

    He did speak good french and a little bit of german, since I do know a bit of french and german myself we could communicate a bit with using a lot of hand signs and this weird mix of french and german 😅

    It was a pleasant meeting with these people and I already loved the city of Berat    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Wine and Stories of Berat festival

    22 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    At the free walking tour in Berat I've met Julia, Vincent and some other cool people from Germany

    After the free walking tour we enjoyed sunset at the Berat castle

    After sunset we were getting hungry, so we went to Lili's homemade food restaurant and I can tell you, this is the best restaurant I have ever been to!

    The owner is an amazing guy! Its homemade traditional food, the service is outstanding and I think this place definately needs a visit when you are in Berat!

    I've paid around 1000 lek (8,5 eur i guess?) for a traditional albanian lamb stew, about 1-2 glasses of wine and we got 2 shots of rakia complimentary

    We also encountered the group of people I had a fun night with in the hostel in Sarandë, it was really nice to see them again after a week and to exchange all our stories of what happened in the meanwhile

    We went to the wine festival in Berat that was happining this weekend, tasting wine and rakia for free at this festival, dancing and partying to albanian music (there was some pretty famous albanian artist live on stage) and meeting local albanians and listening to their stories about life in Albania and Berat
    I don't know if there would even be a better way as this to fully immerse myself in the local culture

    I really enjoyed myself but I drank a bit too much so I've had some difficulties finding the way to the hostel again, when I finally arrived at the hostel I couldn't open the door, it seemed the door was locked from the inside (or I might have been too drunk to open it)

    Because I couldn't open the door I was sitting at the stairs thinking about what to do, I was ready to just sleep outside until I heard a voice from the balcony, it was the old man from the hostel, he heard me making noise and it woke him up so he came down to open the door for me

    Drunk as I was I could barely stand on my legs anymore so the old man had to help me to get up the stairs and get in my room

    All by all, it was a great night    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Autostop Berat-Tirana

    24 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Today I hitchhiked with Vincent from Berat to Tirana

    We did it in 3 rides

    Our first ride was going to Fier and they dropped us at the intersection where the road splits to either Fier or Durres

    Our second ride was a guy from Greece with his mother but they lived in Albania
    They did not speak any english so conversating was a bit difficult and we were not entirely sure where they would drop us off, they gave us a ride to Durres

    In Durres we were in a slightly worse spot for hitchhiking, but we managed to get a ride in about 20-25 minutes
    It was an albanian guy who didnt spoke much english and he lives in Tirana    Meer informatie

    Zie vertaling
  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    First day in Tirana

    25 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today I have done the free Tirana walking tour, I've learned a lot about the history of Albania during the tour

    After the tour I've visited Bunk'art 2
    It is a nuclear bunker built by the government in case of a nuclear war, now the bunker is converted into a museum about the dark past of AlbaniaMeer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Bunkart 1

    26 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    I've visited Bunkart 1
    It is a bunker a few kilometers from Tirana center
    The bunker consists of 5 stories and more as 120 rooms, it is converted into a museum now to display the dark past of Albania's communism

    After this I've visited the National History Museum    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Theth

    30 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    On my last day in Shköder I've met Vincent and Vilda again
    I've also met Simon, a german guy and he was travelling with his own car through Albania, he offered me a ride to Theth as he was going there as well

    So as we left early in the morning to drive to Theth I was still really tired, I didn't sleep that well and I had a massive hangover

    The first 2 hours of the drive went pretty well, until we arrived in Theth and we started driving further to the guesthouse of Simon and Vilda we got stuck with the car in a narrow mountain path

    We needed some help from a few passing albanians to fix this

    I started my hike to Valbona, its a steep rocky path and I immidiately regret having a backpack of 20 kilos on my back with all my stuff and gear in it

    I keep thinking "why am i doing this?" and I even start thinking of just going back to Theth, stay there and do a few hikes around there without this massive backpack

    But as I see the highest peak of this mountain range in the distance it keeps me motivated, I might do this peak as well, even though it is one of the most dangerous and highest peaks of Albania

    But I will see, I am gonna try to make it to the base of that peak today, pitch my tent over there and tomorrow I'll see if I'd go for that peak or just go straight to Valbona

    Whatever I'll do, its gonna be a real adventure for sure    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Camping in Valbona valley

    30 oktober 2022, Albanië ⋅ 🌙 8 °C

    The beginning of the hike was pretty hard, especially because of my big backpack
    But after a while it got better and I reached the place where I was supposed to go camping earlier as I planned, so I decided to hike a bit further as I still had a lot of energy left

    I hiked through the Valbona pass to the Valbona valley and decided to pitch my tent there

    By now the sun is setting already so it will get dark soon

    While I moved a bit further away from my camping spot to eat my dinner I saw bones of an animal, they looked pretty old but still it made me a little bit anxious because I do know that there are bears and wolves in this area

    The time changed last night, so that means that sunset is already at 16h40
    Because I am alone in the mountain there isn't much to do anymore after dark so I guess I am gonna sleep early tonight to wake up as early as possible

    I might try to go to Maja Jezerce tomorrow, which is the highest peak of Valbona national park
    Although, this peak is the second highest and one of the most dangerous peaks of Albania
    So I am not really sure yet what I would do, I might go directly to Valborne and visit the waterfall, I'll see tomorrow    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    From Valbona to Kosovo

    31 oktober 2022, Kosovo ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    This morning I woke up early to continue the hike to Valbona

    I didn't sleep well so I was really tired and I didn't feel like doing the hike to Maja Jezerces so i continued to hike to Valbona

    After about 2 hours I finally reached Valbona, I still didn't knew what to do
    Would i do another hike and do some camping? Or would I hike or hitchhike to Kosovo?

    I decided to try to hitchhike to Kosovo, but because there was close to none traffic on this road I started walking already

    2 hours passed and still not a single car had passed, I almost gave up on the idea to get to Kosovo today and I was planning to just hike for a while and pitch my tent in the evening

    Until finally a car passed me, I stuck out my thumb and the car stopped
    The driver did not speak any english, but he was calling with a friend and his friend did speak english, so I explained him that i wanted to go to Kosovo but if he would drop me in Bajram Curri it would be okay for me (Bajram Curri was the nearest bigger town)

    He dropped me in Bajram Curri, there is a direct road from Bajram Curri to Kosovo, after a while I got another ride from an old guy, he didn't speak any english but he was going to Kosovo

    I told him I wanted to go to Prizren, he answered me in albanian, I had no clue what he said but the only thing I understood was that he wasn't going to Prizren, well, let's see where we end up

    In the end he drove me to Gjakova, about 15 kms from the border with Albania
    I was planning to hitchhike further to Prizren or Prishtina but after a walk in this town I decided to stay here for a night, it seems like a nice town so let's explore it a bit 😁    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Day 50 on the road! Prishtina

    4 november 2022, Kosovo ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Taking the bus from Prishtina to Prizren today

    Chilled a few days in Prishtina but I got really exhausted so decided to take a bus to take a break from hitchhiking

    Today is my 50th day on the road and it has been a blast so far! I've had some really tough moments but also a lot of great everlasting memories

    I've been camping in the mountains with wolves howling in the background, slept on some remote beaches, hitched some rides by some really interesting or crazy people 😅 and most of all got to know some other cultures that are way different from other cultures in europe    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Prizren and back to Shkodra

    6 november 2022, Kosovo ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    I've spent 2 nights in Prizren before I decided to go back to Shkoder by hitchhiking

    I felt really tired, had a little bit of a headache and didnt feel like hitchhiking, but the bus to Shkoder was 15 euros, so it would be nice if I could save that money

    I started walking away from the city center and I've got a ride for a few kilometers by an kosovan guy who didnt speak any english, he dropped me off at the bus station for the bus to Shkoder so I started thinking again about taking the bus because it would be more relaxing

    Well, I still had 1 hour before the bus so I decided to start hitchhiking again instead

    It didn't took long before someone stopped for me, it was a guy from Kosovo but he was living in Milano since 30 years, he moved there during the war

    His brother had a serious accident with his car and is in hospital so he went to visit him for a week and right now he was on his way to Tirana airport to get his flight back to Milan

    When i got out of his car I was in a really terrible spot for hitchhiking
    I had to walk for a bit to get back on the highway to Shkoder and after a walk of about 1 hour I started to thumb up again at drivers

    Several cars passed before one stopped, it was a private taxi and he was going to Lezhe but he wanted 200 lek (1,6 eur) for it

    Well, Lezhe was about 10 kms so 200 lek isnt too much and since I am in such a bad spot for hitchhiking it would be good to get to a better spot to catch a ride to Shkoder

    When I arrived in Lezhe a taxi driver approached me and he really wanted to convince me to get his taxi to Shkoder but he got in an argument with another taxi driver, it didn't took long before the other taxi driver punched him in the face and they started fighting each other

    But good... They were shouting to each other in albanian and I had no idea what this is all about so I decided to just move on and try to hitch another ride, it was already getting dark so I had to catch another ride soon if I still wanted to make it today and I was feeling pretty bad, I was really tired and by now I had a really bad headache

    I started thumbing up again and after a while a guy with his mother and sister stopped for me, the guy spoke a very little bit english but the rest of his family didn't seem to speak much english

    After about 40 minutes of driving they pulled over in a small local restaurant, we went there to eat, the food was really delicious and it was a lot!

    When my driver paid for the food I asked him how much i have to pay him but he told me he would pay for it and that I did not have to pay

    After the restaurant he drove me to Shkoder, he asked me if I had a place to stay, he offered me to sleep at his house

    I already booked a hostel in Shkoder so I did refuse that although I really appreciate the offer, he dropped me off right in front of my hostel

    When I arrived at the hostel I didn't see a sign of the hostel at the address at all, I decided I wanted to call the hostel but that wasnt possible as I dont have mobile data and calling is expensive outside of the EU

    So I head back into the city center looking for another hostel, I found a public wifi hotspot which I used to book another hostel on my phone but when I arrived at my new hostel no one opened the door neither, I was waiting for about 30 minutes until I've met an indian guy who was also guest in the hostel, he let me in so I could finally check in and rest a bit after a very tiring day    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Hitchhiking to Montenegro

    7 november 2022, Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Hitchhiking from Shköder to Montenegro proved to be more difficult as hitchhiking within Albania

    I was waiting for a while for a ride, the traffic in direction of Montenegrian border was scarce and no one would stop for me

    After about 20 minutes a guy on a scooter stopped for me, but I did reject this ride, it didn't seem very convenient to take a big backpack with me on his scooter

    After not getting a ride for 30 minutes I decided to start walking already, the montenegrian border was only about 20 kilometers, after walking for only a few minutes a guy stopped for me

    He wasn't going to Montenegro but he was going halfway and wanted to give me a ride
    He spoke very good english, he told me I could try to travel by bike, so I can just keep going and I won't have to wait for a ride all the time

    He also told me about his project, he runs a guesthouse, his project is called 'free showers' and all hostels or guesthouses who join in the project are offering free accommodation to people travelling with a bike

    After the guy dropped me off at his guesthouse I started walking again

    When I was only 5 kilometers from the montenegrian border someone finally stopped for me

    He was going to Lucinj and could drop me there

    After I got to Lucinj I wanted to go further north to Bar

    I wandered a bit around in Lucinj first and went for a walk, hoping to find a good spot to hitchhike, this turned out to be a big mistake

    I walked for a while but could not find a good hitchhiking spot nor could I find a good place to pitch my tent since almost every plot of land seemed like it was private property

    I found the highway again but it was a terrible spot on the highway, cars were coming by too fast and there was barely room for a car to stop

    After about 40 minutes one guy who was entering the highway honked at me and signed to me to get in, so I got in his car

    It was a kosovan guy who lived in Germany and Antwerp and now he lives in Montenegro

    He was going to Dobra Voda but he went out of his way to drive me to Bar because it was getting dark already and he wanted to make sure I safely arrived in Bar!    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Finding a place to sleep

    9 november 2022, Montenegro ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Today I was about to leave Bar and do a hike in the direction of Budva

    I started walking for hours until I saw something what looked like a wild beach on maps.me

    I thought that would be a good spot to pitch my tent

    All villages I was passing through were empty, even though the weather is still perfect to chill at the beach, its low season so in some villages everything was closed and no one was there anymore

    When I was on the way to the wild beach I had to pass through some really dense forest for about 1 km, there were also rocks and some parts were pretty steep and involved some rock scrambling

    It was not a great idea to do this with my big backpack and all my gear, I could barely move since my backpack was that heavy and since there was almost no space

    I got stung by thorns and branches all the time and at some point I almost slipped from the rock, fortunately I could still hold on to a tree which saved me from falling down

    I decided it was not a smart idea to continue to this beach so I was heading back to the village

    I had no idea what to do now, I needed a place to sleep but I had no idea where

    I was looking at the bus schedule and there is supposed to be a bus at 17h back to Bar

    I wasnt even sure if this bus was still running in the low season and there was no one around to ask so I decided to wait, if the bus wouldn't come I would just sleep at the beach in my sleeping bag

    At 17h the bus was there, on the bus I have met a montenegrian guy who was fishing, he gave me a sip of traditional homemade montenegrian brandy, it was quite good

    He also gave me a bottle of whiskey as a gift, I told him he didn't have to do that but he insisted

    After I arrived back to Bar I started walking north to look for a place to pitch my tent

    I found a pretty big flat spot near the beach and close to the road and decided to pitch my tent there and start hitchhiking further to Budva from here tomorrow    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Kotor

    10 november 2022, Montenegro ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I just arrived in Kotor

    To be honest, Kotor feels significantly more expensive as Bar, especially if I'd compare it with Albania and Kosovo 😂

    But the old town is really stunning and since it is off season its really nice to be here without all the touristsMeer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Trebinje

    12 november 2022, Bosnië-Herzegovina ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    In Kotor I've ended up sick, I woke up with shivering and a fever

    I needed to calm down a bit and rest to recover but Kotor was such an expensive place that it would cost me too much to get a private room there

    I decided to take a bus to Trebinje in Bosnia to get a private room until i'd feel better    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Mostar

    17 november 2022, Bosnië-Herzegovina ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    I took the bus from Trebinje to Mostar

    The old town is really beautiful but I have also noticed how many war torn buildings are in this city

    It is harsh to see, it's fascinating but sad at the same timeMeer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Sarajevo

    20 november 2022, Bosnië-Herzegovina ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    Today I did the free walking tour in Sarajevo

    The tour was really interesting and I've met a few cool people in the tour who I spent the day with exploring the city, in the evening we went to a local pub and got something to eat

    Last weeks I felt a bit sad and depressed, I started to become homesick and I did not knew what to do

    I did talk about it with a few people and talking about it really helps, I noticed that most long term travellers have been through homesickness in some parts of their travels

    I decided to cut my trip short because of this and also because I haven't seen my friends and family in a while, so I wanted to be home before the holidays

    After Bosnia I am gonna make my way to the baltic states and I will go back home through Finland, Sweden and Denmark

    Since I have an approximate end date in sight I also noticed my homesickness getting better, I have more energy and I do enjoy my trip more since I've made this decision    Meer informatie

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  • Dave's AdventuresFrom Bulgaria to BelgiumDave's Adventures

    Prague

    29 november 2022, Tsjechië ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    Prague was magical!

    I loved every moment in this city and I fell in love with it every day

    Zie vertaling
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